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Changing your unemployment fund

You can only be a member of one unemployment fund at a time. However, you can change your unemployment fund without affecting your entitlement to benefits. The prerequisite is that you join a new unemployment fund no later than one month after leaving the previous one. You must also pay your membership fees to the previous unemployment fund up to the final day of membership.

The option to transfer your benefit entitlements between unemployment funds does not affect your eligibility for membership. Consequently, if you want to change your unemployment fund, you must be a wage or salary earner, employed at the time of joining, and aged 18 – 68. If the unemployment fund to which you belong is dissolved, liquidated or declared bankrupt, you can join another unemployment fund within one month, even if you are unemployed.

Authorisation to terminate membership

When you join us, you can authorise us to manage your resignation from your previous unemployment fund. In this case, you do not have to submit the notice of termination yourself.

When you authorise us to terminate your previous unemployment fund membership, we will communicate the authorisation to your previous unemployment fund and ask them to end your membership the day before you join us.

We will manage your resignation from the previous unemployment fund as soon as we receive your membership application and check that there are no impediments to your joining the fund.

At this point, however, your membership fee is still unpaid. If you do not pay the membership fee, we will later have to reject your membership application due to the unpaid fee. In such a case, you would no longer belong to any unemployment fund because your resignation from your previous fund would already be registered. This may result in you losing the working condition period you previously accrued.

We can only manage the resignation from the unemployment fund on your behalf. If you would also like to terminate your trade union membership, you must notify the union yourself.

Many trade unions have an online termination form for this purpose. You should also ask your employer’s payroll staff to stop deducting union membership fees from your wages or salary.

Instructions for changing your unemployment fund

Follow these instructions to join us from another unemployment fund:

  • Fill in and submit the online membership application, and then keep track of emails from us.
  • When we send you a message accepting your membership, send a notice of termination to your previous unemployment fund.
    • You can also authorise us to terminate your previous unemployment fund membership on your behalf. In this case, you do not have to submit the notice of termination yourself.
  • If you have already resigned from your previous unemployment fund, remember to join us within one month of leaving so you can transfer your accrued working condition period to us.
  • Ask your employer’s payroll staff to stop deducting membership fees for your previous unemployment fund.

Switching between funds for entrepreneurs and employees

If you are transferring from our fund to an unemployment fund for entrepreneurs, you are entitled to receive an employee’s earnings-related daily allowance if you become unemployed before you accrue the entrepreneur’s working condition period. The prerequisite for this is that you join the entrepreneurs’ fund within one month of leaving us.

Correspondingly, if you join us from an entrepreneurs’ fund and become unemployed before you accrue the employee’s working condition period, you are entitled to the earnings-related daily allowance you would receive if you were still a member of the entrepreneurs’ fund. The prerequisite for this is that you change funds within one month.

In both cases, the earnings-related daily allowance is granted and paid by the unemployment fund to which you belong.